Producing footballers can be an inexact science but anyone looking to check on the value of youth development in the modern game will see some clear evidence tomorrow at New Douglas Park.

Hamilton Academical and Celtic may be separated by the length of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League, and wildly contrasting financial pictures, but the one thing that unites the clubs is their devotion to rearing their own young players. From James McCarthy to Shaun Maloney, there is a thread that runs through both sides that hints at a bright future for the domestic game.

If McCarthy is Hamilton's prize asset, having already attracted a bid from Liverpool last season, then he has plenty of peers for company in

the home dressing-room. James McArthur and Brian Easton will be in Scotland's under-21 side on Tuesday night when they take on Northern Ireland, also at New Douglas Park.

Three Celtic players will also be in that Scotland under-21 squad, though perhaps only Paul Caddis will feature in Gordon Strachan's squad tomorrow, with Jason Marr and Mark Millar having to bide their time in the reserves. If that sounds as if Celtic are suffering from the problem that affects most big clubs, of having too many youngsters held back by big-money signings, then that is misleading.

Of Strachan's current squad, Maloney, Stephen McManus, Aiden McGeady, Cillian Sheridan and Darren O'Dea are all products of the Celtic youth system. Some took longer than others to flourish, with McManus not breaking through until he was 22, while Maloney and McGeady were first-team players at 17, en route to being Scotland's players of the year in 2006 and 2008.

The irony is that Celtic could have had McCarthy as well. The Ireland under-21 cap, who celebrated his 18th birthday last week, was in the Celtic system but was released at 12. He was also let go by Livingston. He pitched up at New Douglas Park, where Billy Reid, the manager, took an immediate shine and gave McCarthy his debut at 16, when he became Hamilton's youngest goalscorer.

“James had been let go by other clubs and could have let his head go down but he flourished in the right environment,” Reid recalls. “I just spotted something in James at 15 and I thought why not bring him into the first-team set-up. That is the ethos of the club. The environment is good here. I don't know if that is purely down to the coaching they get at Hamilton or just that they see other boys getting a chance and they want to be here. I had a 17-year-old knocking on my door at the start of the season wanting to know why he was not in the first team. That does not happen at other clubs but to me it is refreshing.”

McCarthy's emergence at Hamilton is not necessarily proof that Celtic's system failed him, merely that New Douglas Park was the right place at the right time for him. Chris McCart, the head of the youth academy at Celtic, feels that the issue of a youngster succeeding in one place after being overlooked in another can be summed up in a few simple words: “Ability is nothing without opportunity.” McCart knows what he is talking about. He was a first-team player in his own right at the age of 18 - “I made by debut against Celtic in 1985,” he said - and looked after the Fir Park youth system before being lured to Celtic last June.

“Motherwell have always been known down the decades as a club that gives first-team chances to players far quicker than other clubs, whether that was Brian McClair or James McFadden.

“Hamilton are like that now. James McCarthy was let go by Livingston as well as Celtic but he developed so quickly in a physical sense that when he arrived at Hamilton, he was in Billy's first team in a short space of time. There was not much youth development, he just hit the ground running and Billy was prepared to give him that chance.

“Before I moved to Celtic, I would probably have felt that they - and Rangers - were not as good an opportunity for youngsters securing first-team football but I have had to revise that opinion. It's only since I've come to Celtic, that I have seen the opportunities. Gordon Strachan has blooded 25 of this club's youth development system in the first team in the time he has been here.

“Obviously, everyone looks at Aiden McGeady, Shaun Maloney and now Cillian Sheridan as the proof that the youth system works. However, I prefer to use Stephen McManus as my example to young kids. He took a while to develop, was captain of the reserves and did not really emerge until Gordon came. Now he is club captain and playing for his country. Players mature at different rates to each other.”

Dig deeper beneath the current crop of 17-year-olds and there is more talent. Celtic currently have a 14-year-old, Islam Feroz, in their under-19 side, while Euan Lindsay, at Hamilton, who is 15, has attracted an offer from Everton.

“There is plenty of young talent in Scottish football, including the ones we produce like Sheridan, and I feel that clubs now have the philosophy that they want to give kids a chance. Peter Lawwell [the Celtic chief executive] has given me the investment to try and take Celtic forward in youth development and we're broadening our scope to include European boys who will supplement the Scottish ones. Too often, we heard negative stories about Scottish football but there is plenty to feel good about.”